Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-08-06
CHAPTER xxx.


Half an hour passed i'll silence which was
only broken by the footsteps of the sentries
as they tramped, or rather loitered. up and
down, or by the occasional fall of some cal
cined masonry from the walls of the burned,
out house What between the smell of smoke
and dust, the heat of the sun on the tin roof
above and of the red hot embers of the house
in front, the little room where Bessie was shut
up was almost unbearable, and she felt as
though she should faint there upon the sacks
Through one of the cracks III the wagon house
wall there blew little draught. and by this
crack Bessie placed herself, leaning her head
against the wall SO as to get the full benefit
of the air and command a view of the place
Presently. several of the Beers came into the
wagon house and proceeded to pull some of the
carts and timber out of it, leaving one buck
wagon, however, placed along the wall on the
side opposite to the crack through which she
was looking Then they pulled the Scotch
cart over to her side, laughing about some
thing among themselves as they did So and
arranged it with It's back turned toward the
wagon, supporting the shafts upon a wagon
jack, Next, out of the further corner of the
place, they extracted an old saw bench and
set it at the top of the open space. Then Bes-
sic understood what they were doing; they
were arranging court, and the saw bench
was the judges chair. So Frank Muller
meant to carry out his threat
Shortly after this all the Beers, except those
who were keeping guard, filed into the place
and began to Chamber on the buck wagon
seating themselves with much rough Joking
in double row upon the broad side rails
Npyt anpaarpd Hans TEOaf7aa bIsh
up in bloody handkerchief. He was pale
and shakv, but Bessie could see that he was
but little the worse for bis wound Then
came Frank Muller himself, looking white
and very terrible, and as he came the men
stopped their joking and laughing. Indeed,
it was curious to observe how strong was his
ascendency over them. As rule, the weak
part of Boer organization is that it is practi-
cally impossible to get one Boer to pay defer
ence to Or obey another; but this was GER
tainly not the case where Frank Muller was
concerned.
Muller advanced without hesitation to the
saw bench at the top of the space, and sat
down on it, placing his rifle between his
knees After this there was pause. and
next minute Bessie saw her old uncle con-
Quoted in by tive armed Beers, who halted in
the middle of the space, about three PAGES
| from the saw bench, and stood one ON either
| side of their prisoner. AT the same time
Hans Coetzee climbed up into the Scotch cart,
and Muller drew a note book aud pencil
| from bis pocket
'Silencel" he said. HWe are assembled here
to try the Englishman, Silas Croft, by court
martial The charges against him are that
H,y, I I,,yr In
| fly the English flag after the country had
been surrendered to the republic, he has trait
orously rebelled against the government Of
the country. Further, that he has attempted
to murder burgher of the republic by shoot
ing at him with a loaded rifle. If these
| charges are proved against him he will be
liable to death. by martial law. Prisoner
Croft, what do you answer to the charges
against you"
| The old man. who seemed very quiet and
composed, looked at his judge and then re-
piled:
Il am an English subject I only defended
my house after you had murdered one of my
servants deny your jurisdiction over me
and refuse to plead"
Frank Muller made some notes in his pocke
book, and then said, Il overrule the prison
er's objection as to the jurisdiction of thu
court. As to the charges, we wilfnow taxi
evidence OF the first charge no evidence il
needed for we all saw the flag flying. As t.
the second, Hans Coetzee the ASSAULTED
burgher, will now give evidence. Han
Coetzee, do you swear in the name of God ant
the republic to speak the truth, the who'll
truth and nothing but the truth"
almighty, yes" answered Hans, from th
cart on which he had enthroned himself, IS
help me, the dear Lord"
proceed then"
II was entering the house of the prisoner :
arrest him, in obedience to your worshipfu
commands, when the prisoner lifted gu
and fired at me. The bullet from the gu
struck me on the ear, cutting it and putin
me to much pain and loss of blood. That
the evidence have to give"
"That's right, that is not a lie,' said som
of the men on the wagon
prisoner, have you any question to as
the witnessp said Muller
II have no questions to ask: deny you
jurisdiction" said the Old man with spirit.
"The prisoner declines to question the wi